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Pope Francis has made it clear he dislikes pomp, the “carnival’’ of religion. But the crowd, scores of thousands in St. Peter’s Square, extending all the way to the Tiber, would have been sorely disappointed by anything less than a papal lollapalooza for the formal inauguration of a new Supreme Leader. And the Roman Catholic Church is unsurpassed in mounting theatre.

The 266th pope tried to bring events Tuesday morning down to human scale. He appeared first, just before 9 a.m., in simple cassock, riding aboard the Popemobile — actually the open-air version, with no protective glass, as a security detail loped alongside and helicopters thwacked noisily overhead — waving and blessing, accepting a wailing baby to kiss, dismounting to lay his hands on a severely disabled man. He is a tactile pontiff. He has a common touch. He is distinguishing himself with a radical humility.

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For half an hour, Francis zigzagged slowly around the vast elliptical piazza, maneuvering through Bernini’s colonnade with its travertine columns soaring 16 metres high — “the embrace of St. Peter to the world’’ — surmounted by statues of saints and martyrs, past the Egyptian obelisk and the two ornate fountains, threading through an adoring throng, hundreds of national flags held aloft and flapping in the breeze, under a cerulean sky, bright sunshine on this day rather than the relentless rain that has chilled Rome over the past week.

In the audience were six foreign leaders — including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (who famously knocked heads with the Archbishop of Buenos Aires over political policies), Canadian Governor-General David Johnson and, alas Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, circumventing a travel ban imposed by European countries in protest against his human rights record – American vice-president Joe Biden, six sovereigns, princes and dukes, dignitaries from 132 official designations, and top-hierarchy representatives of every faith on Earth, transforming Francis’ “enthronement’’ into a truly ecumenical gathering.

Franciscan plainness — in the manner of St. Francis of Assisi, from whom he took his papal name — is what this pope would have preferred. He’s made that evident enough in the five days since the former Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, as he was, was chosen by 114 fellow Cardinals on the fifth ballot of the conclave. Already, Francis has given his protectors conniptions by plunging into crowds for spontaneous walkabouts and gallivanting about Rome without prior announcement. Papa Francesco clearly wants to get close, closer. Yet there is apparent deliberateness in all these gestures as well; he is signaling something about the pontificate to unfold.

While St. Peter’s organ music boomed across the square and sweet voices were raised in song — the Sistine Chapel Choir, the Institute of Sacred Music entertained the patient audience — Francis disappeared to change into more ornate investments, reappearing in full brocade-trimmed regalia and carrying his croft.

The formal program began with a solemn descent into the Tomb of St. Peter, where Francis bowed his head in reflection before the saint’s remains and censed the reliquary. It was here, in Nero’s Circus, long before the Basilica was erected, that Peter and other early Christians were martyred. The tomb is, literally, the foundation of the Church and the foundation of the papacy.

There were ceremonial rites to be observed as 76-year-old Francis was bestowed with the symbols of papal authority.

He accepted the pallium, a cloak of lamb’s wool made by the Sisters of St. Agnes, symbolizing the lamb carried by a shepherd on his shoulders, evoking the “Good Shepherd’’ who carries the lost lamb on his shoulder, as the pope is shepherd of a flock that numbers 1.2 billion worldwide. Slipped onto his finger was the Fisherman’s Ring, depicting Peter holding keys — the keys to heaven. It is a recycled ring, actually, made of gold-plated silver from a wax cast. At the end of every papacy, the pope’s rink is smashed with a silver hammer.

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The inauguration mass itself — held outdoors, in front of the Basilica’s magnificent façade — was shorter than in the past, at Francis’ insistence, yet still lasted 2 ½ hours.

The occasion coincided with the Feast Day of St. Joseph. Francis made reference to that, to Joseph as protector of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, in his much-anticipated homily, the part of the mass — broadcast live around the globe — that functioned as a roadmap for the papacy he envisions. That vision is clear: A church for the poor, a church of virtue.

Protection, looking out for each other, was the homily’s central theme, “protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world. . . . It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live.’’ Our first tree-hugger pope, oh my.

“It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about’’, embracing “with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important, the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the native, the sick, those in prison.’’

Francis segued to unusually frank admonitions. “Please, I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all the men and women of goodwill: Let us be ‘protectors’ of . . . one another and the environment. Let us not allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of the world.’’

Protection, he emphasized, demands “tenderness and love.’’

They cheered him then.

This pope has shown his tenderness and love. But he will also need fortitude, toughness, to even begin resolving the manifest crises that have befall the Church.

In these last five days, however, Francis has often brought to mind the famous words of another archbishop from Latin America, the late Helder Camara, nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize: “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.’’

As the Eucharist communion was prepared, prayers were recited in French, Russian and Swahili. Then dozens of priests spread through the crowd, sheltering from the sun under gaily-striped parasols — in the Vatican’s colours of yellow and white — to serve the communion.

Francis ended his homily with the words similar to those he uttered when he emerged from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday night, everybody gathered that evening, straining to identify the new pope — who is this man?

“I ask all of you to pray for me, Amen.’’

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